Blog 7: Gravity, Orbits, The Universe!

      This chapter, we're learning about gravity and orbits. This stuff is really exciting because it affects not only our everyday life, but also accounts for those wondrous sights in the space around us! I could tell you about all this, but I'd rather show you.
      I found this cool page where you can take a tour of the universe with the interactive universe. It shows all the planets (even poor Pluto) and some of the many other things out there like black holes (which we've been learning a bit about) and even Halley's comet. Don't forget to turn on your sound for some spacey music!

Now that you're done exploring, time for the physics.

The first thing that caught my eye about this tour of the universe was the fact that it showed Halley's comet because we've been learning about it a bit to learn about orbits. The force of gravity affects the comet all the way around its orbit (and causes the orbit). Also, the comet's PE is greatest when it is at its perihelion distance and its KE is greatest at its aphelion distance. So since we're around Halley's aphelion distance, a place where KE, and therefore speed, is great, it means the comet is going really fast when it comes near Earth!

The second thing that I noticed was the other comet, Comet Hale-Bopp. If you thought 74 years was a long time to wait, think again. Comet Hale Bopp only comes every 2038 years - an actual once in a lifetime experience (or maybe more than one lifetime). Just look at the size of its orbit! It passes nicely by earth but its whole orbit doesn't even fit in the picture! Also, Hale-Bopp was visible for 19months to the naked eye. This very long time makes sense, as we are near Hale-Bopp's perihelion, the distance at which PE is the greatest and velocity is the lowest.

Cavendish!

I thought that name sounded familiar. This isn't the same Cavendish from physics, but i think this video is pretty cool.

click "Video: Two Days in the Studio with Nellie McKay" to play the video!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89287187

Blog 6: Circular Motion, Oh Lauren

          These past two chapters have been about circular motion. In one lab, we learned about how some water (and a duck) could stay in a bucket even when that bucket was twirled over one's head. That was the big scale version. You can also recreate this lab with an uncapped water bottle. I think this is much more entertaining, but mostly because it's Lauren who's doing it (that's real propel in that bottle!).

          The propel stays in the bottle, even when the bottle is completely turned over, because the liquid has enough inertia to want to go in a straight line instead of falling with gravity. Its straight line motion is stopped by the sides of the bottle, making the propel go in a circle along with its container. And, as you can see, none of it spilled out.

          Thanks to Reece for recording this with his iphone!. And for the record, she was laughing about what kind of facial expression she would make while turning the bottle (what a good one :] ). Also, the bottle on the right was Jamie, who would have probably spilled her water had not the cap been on. :]

another one

This time there were three cars! How exciting.

 The back car tried to move off to the shoulder, but then they'd have to go through the on ramp lane and Earlyn kept screaming because they kept almost getting hit.

 Talking. That's the guy who owned the mercedes (right car).

 See any damage?

 Ambulance came!

But it's ok. Nobody got taken away.

 Three police cars!

This is what the whole thing looked like.

NEWS: Convertible this time!

 Guess what! There was another accident today!








Look at that nice convertible. As dad said: Iss probably some haole turasss.

 It went under the truck! No bumper action there.

This camera has such good zoom.

Ok you car fanatics. What kind of car is this. I know you know.

People got all backed up. This is the H-1 and i'm sorry if you got stuck in this.

Blog 5: Momentum, Katoosh!

This past weekend I went to the UH football game to look for momentum. I realized that whenever there was a colission between two things, there will be momentum. As i was watching, camera ready to capture the blocks and tackles, I saw Steven.

He didn't look at me so i had to go over to his seat to take his picture.

Too bad I didn't get any good tackle pictures. But it's a good thing my uncle is a UH football fanatic and sent me a picture of a really brutal tackle!
In this picture, you can see Meatoga colliding with the opposing line. He and the other Colorado player meet head on but do not move after their collision. Also, the Colorado player seems a bit more massive. What does this mean for momentum? Since momentum is always conserved, their total momentum before has to equal their total momentum after (0). Therefore, the momentum of the Colorado player before equals the momentum of the UH player before. Then, since the Corado player has a greater mass, that means that Meatoga has to have had more velocity than him in order to hold the line!

Blog 4: Work, Working, But Not.

This weekend, UH played LaTech at aloha stadium. Luckily, my cousin's family had an extra ticket so I actually got to do something this weekend besides clean my stupid bathroom... anyway.
I'm glad to say, I didn't have to do any work like that at the game. But sadly, the work that I DIDN'T do at the game turned out to be really tiring too.

As you can see from this very awkward and embarrassing video (lucky you, I decided to put it up), the force I used to carry my cousin was directed upwards while my displacement was horizontal. Therefore, theta was 90 degrees making cos(theta) = 0. Then, since work = F x d cos(theta), I did absolutely no work.
I think that's really sad. My cousin is 10 now and he's getting really heavy (well, 68 lbs maybe, but what can I say; He's a picky eater.) I feel like I should have gotten some recognition from the laws of physics but no. Carrying a 10 yr old kid across a semi-spectator-filled parking lot means nothing! Well, at least my uncle (who was filming) thought it was funny.